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Contract Design and Uncertainty in Software Development Projects

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Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 194))

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Abstract

Recent research has described software development projects in terms of the economic principal agent theory. These models mostly describe the customer as the principal, whereas the supplier is the agent. Our study shows, that regarding gaps in software requirement specifications, the supplier is in a principal situation, and the customer plays the role of an agent. Specifications are incomplete due to systematical reasons. Therefore, the customer must work on closing the gaps during the design and development phase of the project. From this, behavioral uncertainties arise. An empirical study supports our theoretical argument. We discuss consequences from these findings and derive suggestions for practitioners in software development projects.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group on Strategic Information Management, European Research Center for Information Systems, c/o University of Muenster, Leonardo Campus 11, D-48149, Muenster, Germany

    Cornelia Gaebert

Authors
  1. Cornelia Gaebert
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Lund School of Economics and Management, Lund, Sweden

    Björn Johansson , Bo Andersson  & Nicklas Holmberg ,  & 

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Gaebert, C. (2014). Contract Design and Uncertainty in Software Development Projects. In: Johansson, B., Andersson, B., Holmberg, N. (eds) Perspectives in Business Informatics Research. BIR 2014. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 194. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11370-8_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11370-8_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11369-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11370-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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